The sponsorship category basically aims at reuniting families. Indeed, contrary to popular belief, being the common-law partner or the spouse of a Canadian citizen does not give the prospective immigrant any kind of status in Canada. It only gives you the right to apply for permanent residence in the sponsorship category, where you have to prove that your relationship with is genuine.

Of course, some people see it as an easy way to immigrate to Canada and var­i­ous groups and asso­ci­a­tions (most of the time, “victims” of a sham marriage) reg­u­larly denounce mar­riage fraud and call for a com­plete over­haul of the immi­gra­tion sys­tem.

In 2010, Citizenship & Immigration con­sult­ed the pub­lic on mar­riages of con­ve­nience. I guess we now see the result of it.

So, what’s the big news? Well, the new law will force sponsored spouses to wait five years from when they are granted Canadian residence status before they can sponsor a new spouse.

Let’s take the fictional case of Mr. Jones (from the US) and Mrs Smith (from Canada). If Mrs Smith sponsors Mr. Jones and then divorce once he obtains the permanent residence status in Canada, Mr. Jones must wait five years to sponsor Mrs. Doe, the new spouse from the US.

According to a representative of Canadians Against Immigration Fraud (yes, apparently there is such an association), “These measures will definitely protect the integrity of our immigration system.”

Yeah sure, if you think so.

Really, this measure is hardly earth-shattering and shouldn’t change anything for the large majority of couples about to apply for sponsorship or currently in the process.

From what I see in immigration forums, the most common kind of “marriage fraud” is when the sponsor doesn’t take his/her responsibilities seriously. Being someone’s sponsor is a big commitment and the requirements are clear from the start:

You and the spon­sored rel­a­tive must sign a spon­sor­ship agree­ment that com­mits you to pro­vide finan­cial sup­port for your rel­a­tive, if nec­es­sary. This agree­ment also says the per­son becom­ing a per­ma­nent res­i­dent will make every effort to sup­port her or himself.

You must pro­vide finan­cial sup­port for a spouse, common-law or con­ju­gal part­ner for three years from the date they become a per­ma­nent resident.

Yet, I keep on reading messages from people who ask how they can sponsor their boyfriend/girlfriend they have never met in person! These people are often those who post again a few months later to describe how they were lied to, and to ask how they can get out of the sponsorship agreement (quick fact: you can’t).

This is not to say that there aren’t bad people who take advantage of their sponsors, but I think education is the key: know what you are getting into, and accept it.

So, is this recent announcement going to make the system better? I doubt it. I think it’s just a buzz and a quick fix to please those who complain about having being cheated.

6 Comments

All the right wings politicians seem to have the same (dumb) ideas. The only reason why I can live in France is because my boyfriend is French but the government is looking to crack down on that because “we’re only here to benefit from the French’s social system.”

If we were to listen to them, we would have to ask permission to the state before we become spouses!

I think that with the upsurge in on-line dating & relationships, people must be very, very careful as to who they get involved with & why. Women seem particularly vulnerable to scammers – men who simply desire either money or the opportunity to immigrate. Be suspicious! It seems odd/crazy to want to sponsor someone you’ve never even met.
There should be some rules & regulations in place – particularly in regard to sponsorship. Imagine the number of marriages of convenience that would take place if there weren’t!

This is a very importan issue to address. The same thing happened in Portugal (what we call “Casamento Branco” = marriage of convenience): foreign people would marry Portuguese women (yes, they were the majority of citizens doing this “business”) after a down-payment of €500 [after leaving the registrar those women would get the rest of the payment] so that they could have a residence and later-on the nationality – Catch: most of those men never lived in national territory, but the Portuguese residence would allow them to travel around the Schengen nations and the US (after the 9/11 this posed a huge security issue).
Result: the government tightened the laws concerning marriages with foreign people (outside the EU) and now it seems to be harder for them to get the residence and even much harder to get the nationality.

It is a complex issue that pertains national security as well. That’s all I can say.

I think it’s harder to get into the EU as a spouse of a resident or national now. It certainly seems to be for France, anyway.

But it’s not that easy for family members to come to Canada either. You still have to pass background checks, security checks, etc. There are only so many “checks” you can do though, and dishonest people will always find a way to cheat the system!